Introduction

A Newton Glossary

Newton and Newton programming bring new terminology to the playing field. Below is a list of the most important new terms with a brief description of each:

PDA
A personal digital assistant. The Newton epitomizes this type of device.

Newton Toolkit
The development environment for Newton applications (also called NTK). There are versions available for both Macintosh and Windows. Note that Newton development does not take place on the Newton itself.

NewtApp
An application framework for quickly developing forms-based Newton applications.

Stationery
Extending applications with plug-in code.

NewtonScript
The development language for Newton applications. This is an object-oriented, dynamic language.

Views
An object created by the Newton view system that is based upon a template (or occasionally a proto). These exist only on the Newton and are the runtime instantiations of what you create in NTK.

Templates
These are the blueprints of a view that you create in NTK. Templates define both the cosmetic aspects of views and the methods within the application.

Protos
These are blueprints for templates (occasionally for views) and are the elements in your NewtonScript code libraries. There are two kinds of protos: system protos, built into the ROM; and user protos, custom ones you create.

viewClass
The most primitive view type. All views and protos are ultimately based upon a viewClass, though it may be far back in the ancestor chain.

Frame
The most important NewtonScript data structure. A frame is a dynamic collection of named slots. Object-oriented programming in NewtonScript is done with frames. Here's an example of a frame:
{
name: "Neil Rhodes",
age: 33,
}

Slot
One element in a frame, composed of a name and a value. A slot can hold any kind of value.

Message
A request to carry out an action--a message is sent to a particular frame.

Method
A function stored as a slot in a frame. When a message is sent to a frame, it causes the method to execute.

Store
The physical storage device for data. There are currently two kinds of stores for the Newton: internal memory and PC cards.

Soup
A related collection of data (as in the "Names" soup or the "Calendar" soup). All readable and writable data are stored in soups.

Entry
This is an individual item in a soup (for instance, one name card in the Names soup). An entry is a NewtonScript data frame.

NewtonScript Heap
The Newton RAM reserved for memory that is allocated dynamically by NewtonScript.

InstallScript
An application function that is run when the application is installed.

RemoveScript
An application function that is run when the application is deinstalled.

DeletionScript
An application function that is run when the application is permanently removed.

Base view
The main view of an application (at the top of the parent hierarchy). Methods and variables used by the entire application are located here.


An online version of Programming for the Newton using Macintosh, 2nd ed. ©1996, 1994, Julie McKeehan and Neil Rhodes.

Last modified: 1 DEC 1996